Injustice: Gods Among Us #1 review

Gather around Batfans, Unkie Andrew’s got something he wants you all to go buy.

I was admittedly apprehensive about picking up another comic book based on a video game but holy crap was this thing awesome. Writer Tom Taylor got to do some CRAZY things with the mythology of these characters that I absolutely did not expect. And whereas I was going to wait for this upcoming video game to his the $20 bin I’m now thinking it’s a day one purchase because the story this comic is setting up, from what I can see right now, is going to be phenomenal.

Now, where do I begin? I don’t want to give away too many details because I want you all to have the same experience as me. I went into this totally fresh. If anything I expected this video game’s story to be your typical Justice League vs. a Legion of Doom organization thing but it’s not. This is more of a Kingdom Come/Dark Knight Returns/”What if things got turned up to 11 and we drove these characters toward an ending” sort of story. There are several major character developments that push these characters in entirely new directions and the villainous plot we see play out in this issue is worth standing up and applauding. Plus it has my favorite line in any comic book I’ve read this month: SHOW SPOILER ▼

Green Lanter: Gunter is a terrible name for a submarine.

Jheremy Raapack and Mike Miller complement each other well as artists although Raapack draws much denser lines. Both do a terrific job of capturing the look of the video game but what impressed me the most was how expressive the characters were. Many of you have never seen your heroes look as tragic as they do here. From the start we see them practically glowing with happiness and hope for the future but by the end of it all you actually feel bad for these superheroes because the sense of loss is so clearly depicted on their faces.

Tom Taylor needs to be given an ongoing series. Now. He gets the voices of every Justice League character perfectly in this issue. Perfectly. It’s funny, it’s dark, it’s intriguing…it’s just an all around wonderful book and I can’t believe I was so ready to dismiss it since it’s a video game tie-in. Go buy it, I can guarantee there will be more than a few moments in this that will take you completely by surprise.